Solved Installing Steam causes windows to lock up, long boot time

CalThies4

New Member
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3
So I just installed Windows 8 on my system, and it was all going smoothly, until I got to installing Steam. After I clicked through a few menus, Steam finally started to install, but the progress bar never went up. If I tried to do anything else (Open task manager, stop the installation, etc...) everything would just lock up and I couldn't do anything.

At this point my only option was to restart, so I did just that. After about an hour of waiting for Windows to boot back up, I gave up and tried to do a system repair. This failed too, so I just re-installed Windows 8. I tried this 4 times. The first few times I thought it was because I might have had incorrect chipset drivers installed, but even when I did get the correct ones, it had the same issue.

At this point my only thought is that maybe I should do all available windows updates before I start installing steam? Otherwise, I'm out of ideas for getting this to work. It's also looking like this may be some sort of hardware failure, possibly ram?

So has anyone else experienced this, or do you have advice?

Motherboard: ASUS M5A99X EVO
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 3.2 ghz
Graphics card: HIS ATI Radeon 7770, 1 GB ram
Ram: 2 x 4GB(2 sets) G.Skill Ripjaws X series, total 16 GB
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7/8
I have Windows 8 on my PC since arrival on MSDN and since then my Steam client works fine.
But yet difference is that my Win 8 is upgraded with latest updates.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro x64
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom Build
    CPU
    E5300 @ 3.9 GHz
    Motherboard
    P31 - DS3L
    Memory
    4GB DDR2 800MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    Radeon HD4850 512MB
    Sound Card
    Integrated
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung SyncMaster 943NW
    Screen Resolution
    1440x900
    Hard Drives
    Seagate 7200.10 250GB
    PSU
    Fortron 350W
    Case
    Linkworld... something
    Cooling
    Arctic Freezer 7
    Keyboard
    Logitech 250 Deluxe
    Mouse
    Logitech SBF 90
    Internet Speed
    4Mbps/512Kbps
    Other Info
    Laptop - Lenovo Z575
    CPU: A6-3400M overclocked to 2.2
    GPU: 6520g + 6650m
    RAM: 8GB DDR3 1333MHz
    OS: Windows 8 Pro x64
    HDD: WD RE3 Enterprise 750GB
Update:

I ran Memtest86 last night, and it passed twice with no problems found. I tried installing windows updates after installing my chipset drivers, and windows did the *exact* same thing that it was doing when I tried to install steam. So It's not steam's fault, it seems like any time I try to install something that isn't a driver, it dies. Weird...... I just said screw it and put windows 7 back on for now, and of course, I had Windows + Steam up and running within an hour.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7/8
Hello i had the exact same problem with steam I had the asus 970 evo. I also found that if you install your over clocking softeare and clock through the software the same thing happens, everything is updated as well as the drivers, software ect. I reinstalled eights about twice. I did find that you have to unpluge uneccesssay drives then boot the cd and use the refresh, takes a few goes to boot into disk. In the end i changed motherboards to msi 990fxa gd80, same problems. In the end removed oc genie clock through uefi (always) insyalled steam on another drive no problems.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
Hello i had the exact same problem with steam I had the asus 970 evo. I also found that if you install your over clocking softeare and clock through the software the same thing happens, everything is updated as well as the drivers, software ect. I reinstalled eights about twice. I did find that you have to unpluge uneccesssay drives then boot the cd and use the refresh, takes a few goes to boot into disk. In the end i changed motherboards to msi 990fxa gd80, same problems. In the end removed oc genie clock through uefi (always) insyalled steam on another drive no problems.
That would do it. I discovered that the problem was actually my hard drive a few days ago. I installd windows 7 on it again, which worked fine until I re-booted it for like the 3rd time. After that it wasn't even recognized by the BIOS as a bootable drive, and I knew it was toast. I installed windows 8 on a different drive and it works perfectly.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7/8
This definitely seems like it is probably due to the drivers you're using. could also be a possibility that something is wrong with your hardware. and yes, as a general recomendation, you should go ahead and install all Windows Updates marked as Important and Recommended (dont worry about the Optional updates, but feel free to get them if you want to). That's the first thing I do after installing any Windows OS. After that I make sure to install the most recent drivers for all my devices, and then double-check to make sure there arent any issues. using the most recent drivers is especially important when using a new OS like 8.

With that said, Steam works fine for me. do you by chance have alot of programs running in the background? if so then do a clean boot and start Steam by itself. There are rare moments when Steam freezes up on me for a moment, but it usually fixes itself. if not, i just kill the process.

Hope that helps!

EDIT: responded in haste w/o reading the OP's last post, glad to hear you solved your problem!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro x64, Windows Server 2012 R2 x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo G700
    CPU
    Intel Core i7-3632QM, 2.20 GHz
    Motherboard
    Lenovo
    Memory
    6 GB DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA 720M, Intel HD 4000
    Monitor(s) Displays
    1 monitor
    Screen Resolution
    1600x900 (max)
    Hard Drives
    1 TB HDD (5400 RPM), 1.5 TB HDD (5400 RPM) installed in a 12.7mm disc drive caddy
    Case
    Lenovo
    Keyboard
    Lenovo
    Mouse
    Laptop/notebook keyboard/touchpad
    Internet Speed
    It varies, since I'm mobile most of the time
    Browser
    Chromium (the open-source browser which Google Chrome is derived from)
    Antivirus
    Kaspersky, Malwarebytes, Spybot, Privatefirewall
    Other Info
    I will add more information here later
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